Is it possible to purchase a cell phone plan from the nation’s largest mobile phone providers with bad credit? Here is my story…
Living with a bad credit is not pleasant at all. Well.. it sucks! Bad FICO score affects many aspects of your finance from house mortgage to a simple thing like getting a cell phone. Even a simple stuff like purchasing a cell phone plan requires you to have a decent credit with long credit history. Almost all major cell phone carriers now require credit check when you sign up for a cell phone plan. If you happen to have poor or bad credit history, they will require a hefty deposit. Otherwise, you would have to have a co-signer and who want to co-sign a person with bad credit. Or go with prepaid cell phones.
When I was in college, I had bad credit score because of credit card collections. When I signed up for a cell phone plan from Sprint, they asked me for a $250 deposit plus first month’s fee in advance. Verizon was no different when I checked the price. I can’t remember how much other carriers wanted to charge me, but I went with Sprint, probably because they had the lowest fee for my credit rating.
After a two-year contract, paying every bill on-time, it actually helped me improve my credit score. Because of my excellent payment record with Sprint, after just two years, they offered me a better plan without any deposit. But as you many know already, Sprint was infamous for bad customer service. I couldn’t stand Sprint’s customer service. It was almost impossible to talk to a human, and the average waiting time was 30-60 minutes. So I moved my plan to AT&T , then to Verizon. By the time I opened an account with Verizon later on, I had excellent credit score.
So even if you have a bad FICO score, you can still apply for a cell phone plan. They will just require you to make some deposit or have you bring a co-signer. Another way to get a cell phone is buying a pre-paid phone. With a pre-paid plan, there’s no credit check required since the payment is already pre-paid. All major cell phone providers offer pre-paid plans, so check it out.
This goes same for land-line phones. Bad credit phone plans for your house will require you hefty deposits and often, they will ask you for a co-signer. The only way to get out of this mess is improving your credit. There’s no magic formula when it comes to repairing credit history and FICO score. Spend less then you earn, pay your bills on-time. Eventually, you will get out of debt and improve credit score.